"Wouldn't it be better for you to discover a meaning in what you write than to impose one? Nothing you write will lack meaning because the meaning is in you." - Flannery O'Connor
Paraphrase of quote: "Authenticity is more valuable than originality." [unable to locate source at 7am...]
I fight an eternal battle of immediately dismissing my own work because I feel it lacks "authenticity" or "originality" or anything that makes me a Real Artist. (I suffer from Velveteen Rabbit syndrome, apparently.)
Recently I was explaining the plot of one of my new song (concepts) to my friends. "It's about a flower, or a seed, buried under the soil and the snow by a gardener, feeling abandoned and longing to feel the warm sunshine again. Except," I cackled, with only one shot of whiskey in me, I swear, "it's actually about a baby buried by its mother, longing to feel her warm embrace and smile again."
They looked at me aghast with horror while I continued to giggle.
Writing about dead children shouldn't bring me such glee, but it does. In an abstract sense, of course. The morbid fascinates me. And to heck if it is 'authentic' or has 'meaning.' This is what I enjoy writing about, what I am good at writing about, so I guess it has meaning. The meaning is within me. Thanks, Flannery.